Sunday, November 24, 2013

Year 14, Week 44, Day One (week 690)

Year 14, Week 44, Day One (week 690)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-23-13 Saturday
   
    78 degrees loads of clouds with lots of sun, light breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.
   
    On the yard sailing front, I hit quite a few.
    Mom had given me all her Manolta Camera equipment. I had an SRT-101 camera that has a good battery and still works. I visited a Elk's Club yard sale before it was officially opened and a woman had an SRT-201 Manolta camera and a couple lenses. I made a low offer to her for the camera. She decided to wait for the show to go on. I said I would drop by later in the day, before the close, and if they still had the camera, she would sell me the whole set for the price I asked for. I passed by there and did not really have time to stop and buy it. This is one of things where I would kick myself if I purchased it, and will kick myself for not getting it. It was a LIKE TO HAVE, not a WANT or a NEED.
   
    At another yard sale, I saw a few small skeins of yarn were sitting lonely in a bin. They came home with me. I am learning that even if you have two life-times worth of yarn, you never have enough. What I have to do is not buy any yarn unless it is the right color or the right material. I am interested in wool or cotton, and in bright colors such as yellow, orange, green. Usually what people are getting rid of is their earth tones.
   
    We went and got the wedding cake. We were a little early and was able to watch them decorate it. This was at a Publix Store that was a superstore, bigger than the big store I normally go to. It was a good walk on the isles. The flowers we were getting there were not ready. The white roses had not arrived yet.
    We took the cake to where the wedding reception was going to happen at. I helped taste test the sandwiches and a few other things.
    One problem they had was they had several trays of sandwiches that had to go into the fridge without getting smashed as they were stacked. They had little containers of cherry tomatoes. I suggested that sandwiches in the middle be removed and the container be put in the center to hold up the next platter. It worked perfectly.
    Mom worked with the decorations of the hall.
    I got a lot of crochet done, several rows on a five foot long scarf. It is coming along nicely. It would be nice to have it done before Christmas. Long before would be really good.
   
    Before we went for the cake, Mom went to a hair appointment and found her stylist was in the hospital. She was able to get a later appointment with another stylist.
    She had left when I went out to pet and feed the kitties, and she came back before I was done. Momma kitty loves attention. Scarface is still hanging around, but he is looking healed now. He will jump down from the work bench where we feed him on his own. His leg is a lot better. He does not beg for attention like Momma kitty, but he certainly does appreciate it.
   
    Mom went and got her flowers while I napped, and then got her hair done. By then it was time to get ready for the wedding. The suit I got a few weeks ago fit nicely and I was complimented on how I looked.
    I drove separately and that was when I went past the Elk's club yard sale for the second time.  My feet still twitch a little on the urge to kick myself. Not quite but the urge is there.
   
    The wedding was very simple, but really well done. We had practice last night and both the ministers and us were figuring out what was going to happen and how. Things changed as we were working with it. The placement of the soloist moved from before the ceremony to near the end and the result was natural.
    Mom gave me her camera and I shot a whole bunch of pictures of the event after I gave her away. This was Mom's wedding, by the way. This was one really impressive wedding. I am really proud.
    After the wedding and pictures, we went to the site of the reception. The decorations, as guided by Mom, was simple but very effective. the food was great. One of the women doing the food had training in cooking and she said she was not in shape to do it commercially. It was a whole lot of work.
    I took pictures of everybody there. There were people who could not make it to the wedding that was there, and there were people at the wedding that could not make it to the reception.
   
    At the end of the day, I was wore out. both my legs were bothering me from all the standing and walking around, and my back did not like it either.
    While I did not get any woodworking done, I did get some crochet done and really had a good day.
   
    Tomorrow, I am staying home other than a run to a few stores. No wood working and I am pretty sure there won't be any crochet done. I will have to see what gets done tomorrow.
   
   
   
Year 14, Week 44, Day Two (week 690)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-24-13 Sunday
   
    High 70s or Low 80s, light breeze, mostly sunny. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Sunrise Department of Tourism.
   
    Last night before I went to bed, I took some frozen bread dough out of the freezer and stuck it into the fridge to thaw.
Early this morning, I did an experiment I have wanted to do. I used my frozen dough as the yeast starter for a new batch of dough. Since it is cooler today than the last time I made bread, it took longer for it to rise, but is working nicely. This was how bread was made before instant yeast. You kept some of the bread dough from the night before to start the rising of the new bread.
    I split the dough into portions, two small bread pans, and some for cinnamon rolls. I also kept a couple pieces which are now in the freezer to start the next batch.
    I have no idea if this is the right way to make the cinnamon rolls as I basically winged it. It is the way I am making it. If it does not work, I will be the only one who has to eat it. At the moment, the bread and rolls are sitting to rise up before they get baked.
   
    I went to Home Depot to get some new blinds for my windows. The one in the kitchen will be easy to change out as everything can be moved. The one in the train room will be tough as the train table and a lot of junk is in the way. I cannot climb, or do very little of it and I am thinking that climbing will be necessary to install the window shade.
   
    Next weekend is Thanksgiving. I will have a little bit of time to do some work, but whether any will get done will have to be seen. I have no idea what is planned, and I also have no idea what the weather will actually be, though they are saying it will be nice.
I really need to finish up some ornaments. The penguins need a coat of varnish to be called done. The four leaping fish I had made will need to be painted. I could use a few more penguins, but doubt I will get them even started, let alone done.
   
    I will have to see what I actually do next weekend.
   
   

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Hey Nancy—it's been a while!

I keep promising I'm going to post here, and things keep getting in the way. So here I am with a bunch of pictures to catch us up, starting back in August and moving up to recent days.





A late summer view through my kitchen window, with my cluttered table. I had just brought the geraniums and coleus in. All are still doing fine and they've grown quite a bit.





I did a little bit of thrifting this summer!






 This was a find. Both are complete audio cassette versions of Tolkien's finest work—unopened. Yes, I have a portable player and can listen to them.




 Found a small case for my netbook, since the mice chewed into the tapestry bag I was using. Fortunately they did not get the neoprene sleeve inside, or any of the cords. The rodents here are extremely aggressive. 







 You know me and my tins. This one now stores twist ties. The bowl got a lot of use during cherry tomato season. 






 OK, I'll be the first to admit, I am a sucker for kitchen gadgets I'll likely never use. This is some kind of dessert mold. 






 No trip is complete without some books. I love Piers Anthony's Xanth stories, and all those adventures of Anne Shirley. 









 Andre Norton is one of those writers who set the stage for us latter-day ladies who pen speculative fiction. She was a wonderful writer, and very readable. I'd never seen this book before. Thrift stores make owning hardcover editions affordable.












 Where else am I going to get two laundry baskets for a couple dollars? They're small, but nice for people to transport their stuff to their rooms, where the baskets are likely to sit unloaded for a while...








Batting is something I use for small felt or crochet stuffie projects. It's certainly not cheap anymore!
 There was enough in here to make it worth the .99¢!








 This little basket now hangs on the barn board wainscoting in the dining room, right near my computer desk. It holds an assortment of things I reach for on a regular basis. 

My love affair with baskets goes on as well...









 This yarn is already in use. It's 'crispy' and should wear like iron, so I am making a rocking chair back cushion for an odd size rocker we keep in the kitchen. My mother likes that chair, but it could use something padded to lean back on. I did a lot of work on that during the baseball playoffs and World Series. 

Yay RED SOX!!!!!!  





 Paper twist and doll hair because I am a craft geek and they looked lonely. I passed up a lot more paper twist, just grabbing the fall colors.

Yeah, they see me coming...









 These aren't thrifted, they came from Roger, who sends me the kewlest stuff! An ebelskiver (pancake balls) pan and two teeny skillets—all good cast iron. Sqeeeeeee!!!!!






Late summer through frost, I was busy with veggies to put up.




 We lost the zucchini early again but did very well with yellow crookneck. I put a lot up for the freezer. I slice and cut it small and completely cook it in the microwave, then drain and mash. Once it is cooled, it goes into zipper bags and gets laid flat on the freezer shelves. You get tired of it in summer, but it sure tastes good in the winter. Rewarm, drain again, and add your seasonings and butter. Yum!

BTW, that big amber Pyrex Visions casserole dish and the colander behind it were thrifted. That knife on the cutting board—which is now my favorite utility blade—was left in a drawer in this house. 





 The tomatoes were generous this year, though the big guys were lumpy and a bit late. Oh, but the flavors! We had a great year for tomatoes. 









 Yes, I picked broccoli all summer. The initial heads were not huge but the side shoots were plentiful and they really held up even in the heat. 







I paid a premium price for a large 6-pack of Orange Bell pepper plants, but they were worth every penny. They produced reliably all summer and turned the most brilliant orange. Sweet as a tangerine too; everyone who tried them remarked on that. They continued producing right into the cold weather, and the peppers kept well both in and out of the fridge. I had a very good crop of peppers this year.





Both pole and bush beans did very well. We grew our pole beans on stakes made of two 7' green metal fence posts bolted together. Not many saplings on this property, so we had to find an alternative.

Try and ignore my ugly, shabby, vinyl kitchen tablecloth. It started the summer as new, but many days of meals and veggie prepping has it showing its age. Those pans came from a thrift store.






More squash to put up. Our friend Willy, an elderly gentleman who lives a mile or so away, gave me a couple of the bigger ones in this batch. I tend to pick mine smaller, so you don't get hard seeds. I provided one of his daughters with my excess cukes and got several jars of bread and butter pickles. I country folks! 






 And more tomatoes too. Those Lemon Boys were absolutely delicious—the best yellow tomatoes I've ever had. Very juicy and not too low acid, they had a refreshing taste. The orange cherry tomato is Sun Gold, my hands down favorite cherry. Salads and sandwiches were delectable and I ate tomatoes as snacks.



 Yep, more broccoli. The salt water soak kills any caterpillars or bugs, which float out. I'd rather find the critters before they get processed. Use a little Kosher or another unprocessed salt, soak a half hour, and rinse well.



 More beans to put up. The purple ones don't hold their color when blanched, they turn sort of a grayish green. That old kettle is thin aluminum, and a flea market find from years ago. It's picked a lot of veggies with me!






This was the first of our potatoes to come in. Nice clean looking Yukon Golds with just a minimal amount of wireworm damage. Very thick skins and the taste and texture was far better than store bought.


'Better than store bought' is why I do this. It's a lot of work to have a garden that produces like ours. You're not even seeing the lettuce, celery, winter squash, pumpkins, eggplants (they were small), and melons we had. We gave away some produce too. There's always something growing here.



Speaking of growing, the family has gained a new little member this year. Meet Mr. Zachary Connor Hansen; born Sunday, September 1st. Isn't he adorable?





Big brother Ben and Zack come visiting at Grandma's house. What a pair of heartbreakers these two are going to be huh?












My #2 son Brian and Zack's big brother Ben share a quiet moment in my kitchen. Brian has been part of Ben's life since he was two, and he's now nine. I have no idea why we didn't get the lovely mom Stacey in any of these photos! 

Ben wanted to grow his hair long, but his runs to curls, so it got cut a week or so later. Too bad, I kind of liked those wild curls.

BTW, all those molds were either thrifted by me or Roger, my other 'enabler'. The iced tea sign is from a Goodwill store.







 I'll tell you, this is one quiet and easy-going baby who doesn't mind being handed around. But when it's mommy time, he lets us know.

Right here I think he is either planning his stock portfolio or contemplating world domination—maybe both! Such long fingers.


Just one more bit of joy added to a world where we can use a lot of that.



As a lot of you know, I am a writer, and fall and winter are my busy times of year. I did get out and take a few snaps though. The pond and the hill over it were an early blaze of beauty.






Wild asters blooming in early October as I walked down by the pond.












Looking over the marshy end of the pond, the foliage is still so thick, you'd hardly know there's water in there.









I love the layering of colors here. It makes me want to paint or crochet something. It's hard to do a lot of other projects with the writing and housework. If I only didn't have to sleep!


Maybe I should just give up the housework?




 A random toadstool that poked through the weeds. Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who sees these things. I write for my town's newsletter and these are the kinds of sights I mention. There's so much we overlook each day.




 I have not been able to identify these plants yet, but I found several clumps of them. This was a Colonial era settler's house and a working farm for over 100 years, so there's a lot here I've never encountered in the wild before.





 Some common wild yarrow, sticking up through the grass. I've seen a lot of that over the years.














 On the far side of the house, looking toward the nearest neighbor's property, and across the road. 









Like I said, layers of colors. Doesn't it make you want to sigh? My grandmother, when she was getting very old and a bit senile, had lost all sense of time passing. She would look out the nursing home window in the fall, and remark about all the pretty flowers on the trees. We just smiled. Now my mother is starting to lose her memory too, and we sit and talk a lot while we still can. One of the reasons Ma loves to come here is it is a change of pace from her home in the woods—my last house, the one where my kids grew up. She lives with my sons and DDIL and grandsons now, but comes over most weekends. I don't write or go out on weekends, in order to spend most of the time with her. At 79, she is in the late fall of her life, headed toward the more silent days of winter.




 Yes, it's only goldenrod, but against that grassy plant that turned ruddy violet, it looks pretty sharp. Goldenrod does not cause allergy sniffling BTW, it's the inconspicuously flowered ragweed that often grows alongside it.






More delicate asters in the tall grass. If we left the field uncut it would be spangled with them, but the ticks love that too. This has been a banner year for ticks, so the fields got cut pretty often.











 October has a lot of blue sky days that are buttery warm in the middle and crisply cold at night. Fall is a lovely season here, and I don't find it at all melancholy. Reflective yes, but not sad.




The farmhouse, seen from down behind the barn. Yeah, that lawn needs cutting. We haven't done a lot with the place yet, but it sure feels like home now, inside and out. I thought I'd never move again; not after over 28 years on my wooded hillside, but I find I love it here. It helps that the kids really wanted the other house. I go back there often, and see my younger adult years playing out for me every place I look. But now after 2-1/2 years here on my old farm, I have new memories being embedded into the home and landscape. 




Life is full of changes.

Sometimes you view the same thing from a different angle and it all seems brand new again.






Sometimes you get a new perspective by glancing up and then looking ahead.

We're making lots of new memories here. Most of the family gatherings and holidays get spent here on the farm, and it seems to be a place where people enjoy being together. I've never lived in a home that was so open and sunny, or one that seems so welcoming. I thought it was just me, but the kids say the same thing. You just walk in and it feels like the house embraces you. I think this old place is just glad to have the sounds of love and laughter within again.



While I am busy with my writing, I do take a little time for myself. Sitting with mom on the weekends, I sometimes drag out the crochet stuff. It keeps me calm and centered when she gets a bit irritable at some imagined slight or repeats herself. I like having my hands busy.

 These double sided hot pads do come in handy too. This is Peaches and Cream crochet cotton. Yeah, that seam wandered a bit, but everything doesn't have to be perfect. These do get used, and Thanksgiving dinner will tax my supply of them.





We had our first little snow of the season a few days ago. It was cold enough to last in the big field overnight; mainly because the day remained overcast. November has a lot of short, gray days. 

Time to put that lawn furniture in storage for the year. 




That frosting on the brush and trees is a prelude to what will come later in the winter. It's also a signal for me that it's time to think about emptying all my flower pots, putting the hoses in the barn, and sealing up the windows for the year. The heat is on now, either the wood burner or the oil furnace, and we need lights indoors after 4PM. The days are short and nippy, and the nights longer, and far colder. 

Fortunately writing knows no season, and this year we have cable TV, so there are programs to watch in the evenings. I also got myself a new Kindle, a Paperwhite, which has a backlighting. I love it! I can read again in bed without disturbing anyone. I can't always see the print in books but my Kindle lets me increase the print size and choose how strong the backlighting will be. I had forgotten how much I love reading. I have a lot of free or low cost public domain collections, and have been selectively reading those, with Anne of Green Gables and some westerns having been the most recent. I splurged on and blew through the first of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books. Oh was that good! Not cheap, but once in a while, you need a treat. I managed to get the first four of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire in a collection that was steeply discounted. Shortly after the paperback for Book 5 came out, that also got discounted on Kindle. I've read the first one and am working my way through the second, and while they are grim, this is fantasy at it's finest. I actually look forward to going to bed now, even with the three eye drop medications I have to take every night. 

Yeah, my eyes are bad, both glaucoma and a nasty cataract in the left, coupled with my ever-present severe nearsightedness. In order to have the time and less eyestrain to write, I all but gave up recreational reading. Now I can read again, with my glasses off, the Kindle two inches from my nose, and the font turned up. Small joys.

That's what life is really all about you know. It's not the big and overwhelming crises, or the day-to-day drudgery. It's not being a superstar and impressing all kinds of people. Forget all the highs and lows, put the lofty dreams and the heartbreaks to bed. String together a few pearls of joy and wonder each day—weather that's seasonal beauty, garden bounty, loving family, or something you made with your own two hands. Live in the moment. I may never be a celebrity because of my writing, but I have written books and stories that got published and entertained people, and that's well worth the time and effort it took. I still have my old farm and my family, my faith and the knowledge that while winter is around the corner, spring comes after it. Should I be so blessed, I'll see it all happen many times again. Life's wheel keeps spinning us up and down and up again.

Make the most of your time here too, even in the simplest of ways,
~Nancy

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Year 14, Week 43, Day One (week 689)

 The finished penguins, except for a coat of varnish for protection
Jumping fish carvings in front.



My latest Autumn colored scarf. This one went fast. The center was multi-colored yarn and I matched the colors for the rest of the scarf which I changed colors as I went along, usually at about a third of the length..

My wicker paper plate holders. The stack in back is the new ones I got. Now all I need is a party.

Year 14, Week 43, Day One (week 689)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-16-13 Saturday
  
    80 degrees, dropped down to 75 degrees before bouncing back to 80 degrees. Thick threatening medium high grey clouds with low pregnant clouds to the north and south of us. A broken band came over us late morning which caused the temps drop and then the weather improved to just the medium high threatening clouds. At some times, there were strong gusts of wind. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. At least we got no snow......
  
    I have had a cold all week. It showed up last Saturday and was at its worst Tuesday. It has not gotten sloppy which was nice. I treat it with Cold-EEZ, Menthol cough drops and If I get bad, I will take a pain medicine. No cold is comfortable, but this has been one of my more comfortable colds I have had in years. The cold and the weather took a lot of energy out of me today.
  
    There were supposed to be a big community yard sale, a big church yard sale and Granny's Attic. We went to Granny's attic first. It is held in a gymnasium with a extended room off of it. These are collector and vendor quality stuff. There are good prices. I saw several things I could well have gotten if I did not already have five of them. One family had antique stuff. There was a washboard and a crank clothing roller. I thought it would be cute to get them, but I have no place for them and no use for them. They were just cool. I walked the place five times and when we got back to our car, I was worn out.
    The weather killed any outdoor yard sales. We found a garage sale in a warehouse. The couple things that caught my eye was not enough to ask their price. The church yard sale and the community sale were not going on, most likely because of the weather.
    We did find a yard sale. We saw it the instant we saw the sign. There was a bag of those wicker paper-plate holders. I asked how much. She said a dollar so I grabbed them up. There was 15 of them. I now have like 35 wicker paper plate holders. I will have no interest in them again unless I find a bunch of them like I just did. I will test them out at the next family gathering that is not a sit-down meal.

    I dug out my Manolta film camera equipment and gave it a quick test. I did not run film through the camera, but mainly checked out the lenses and the set-ups.
    My bellows attachment does have a problem of not locking in place, starting to disconnect itself from the camera. That is not a problem usually. I just have to be careful and aware of the problem.
    I was reminded of something that I forgot about as soon as I learned it the first time. ON my bellows, I have a 55mm lens mounted backwards with a 2x doubler on it to make it a 100mm lens. Usually the doublers are poor optics but this one is very good. When I was heavy into photography, I had mounted a zoom lens on the bellows backwards like I have this one. I had found that the zoom ring became focusing, and the focusing ring became a zoom.
With my setup, I turned the focusing ring and found that I can get a wider view or a narrower view  through the bellows attachment. When looking at a flower, I can fill the screen with a flower the size of your thumbnail, or by turning the focusing ring, I am backed up slightly to see some of the leaf surface around the flower. When I crank the bellows in, I can look at infinity. The focusing ring will give me a good telephoto view or a wider angle view. I will have to do some tests to figure out what the range is.
    I now remember what the difference is between the model 101 camera I have and the model 201 camera that they came out with later. The newer model allowed the hot shoe on top the camera to set off the strobe. This requires you to plug the strobe in with a cord and the fitting on top the camera is only to hold the strobe. This model 101 has two flash plugs, one for flashbulbs where it would set them off before the shutter fully opened to give them time to power up, and the electronic strobe that flashed just when the shutter was opened. I have several adapters that fits on the strobe's hot-shoe and then a cord runs to the plug.
    With the bellows, I liked having the strobe mounted on a bracket so the lense of the strobe is about the same height as the camera lens. I tested a handle bracket but that put the strobe too high. I have no idea where most of my camera equipment is as I used to have a bracket the right kind.
    Some of my lens attachments don't work with my selected equipment. I realized that I don't need some of the equipment I brought with me. That will make the bag lighter.
    I am not a person who uses a tripod. Most photographers will mount their bellows onto a tripod, and carefully adjust the focus until they get everything right then take the picture. My method is to basically set the focus to the size I want the subject on the image to be and then move myself in and out until it is in focus and take the picture. The strobe, mounted the way I like it, freezes any motion. The strobe also made the subject stand out against the background, which natural lighting cannot do.
    All this camera testing likely took only half an hour.
  
The weather and my cold took away any serious thought about wood working. I just did not have it in me.

    I did sit and crochet. I finished, except for the tassels, my Autumn colored scarf. I can see things I should have done that would make it better, but I am not complaining. It is pretty colors.
    That is the eighth scarf in my collection. The one in the truck is going to take quite a while to get any length that someone might consider finished.
  
    I do hope to do some wood working tomorrow. It gets frustrating to not have any production. A lot will depend on the weather.
  
    I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
  
  
Year 14, Week 43, Day One (week 689)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-17-13 Sunday
  
    85 degrees, lots of medium-high grey clouds, with blue spaces between and some sunshine. A nice breeze kept things comfortable.
  
    Feeling better this morning, I dug out my carving stuff. I carved another jumping fish and when I was done, I decided I did not like carving jumping fish. This gives me four and I won't make any more unless the mood hits me sometime. They are just not working. My first one came out good and none of the rest has matched the quality.

    I got around and finished touching up the Penguin ornaments. I used a Stabillo to touch up some spots missing black or where paint went a little too far. I also finished up the eyes.  I sanded the bottom of the bases and signed them. I still have to give the penguins a coat of varnish but held off on that. 9 penguins will be enough. I could use, though, another three.
  
    I had seen an article where a guy turned little balloons (light bulb shapes) and then turned little baskets and attached them together with string glued between them. I have considered making them for a while, but wanted to do a single step kind of thing, avoiding the string.
    Years ago, I had made a few ornaments that required one to take four sticks that are attached back-to-back. One then turns a shape in them. You then disconnect them turn them around so the turned surface is facing inside and then turn it again, following the shape. One ends up with a hollow ornament you can see inside of.
    I got an idea of trying to make the  balloon that way, using the wood to be the strings. I had a stick of three-quarter wood. I cut it in half, then cut each half in half. I used tape to bind them together. I was going to remove some wood where the ropes would be on the lathe. I found that the little lathe was too small, and the chuck of the big lathe did not go small enough. I tried turning it anyway using friction and marked the wood before it caught and came apart. I then decided to tape it back together and carve it instead. I made my cuts, then flipped them around and glued them together.
    While the glue was drying, I went in to have lunch and do some crochet. I came out after the glue set and started carving and quickly found my plan with the lathe would not have worked anyway, at least the way I tried to do it. Cutting into the wood limited the size of the basket. I was not getting a balloon shape at all. After I had piled some wood chips, I tossed it in the garbage without ever taking pictures of any stage. I have been thinking about methods that could have worked and don't like any of them.
  
    The momma kitty sat in my lap for about fifteen minutes. She enjoyed the attention I gave her. I set her on the ground because I had to do other things. I do not know if she would stay there if I were not giving her attention. When  she gets to that point, I will call her a lap cat.
    Scarface has been hanging around close for the past few weeks. He had hurt his paw and has decided not to wander anywhere. He is eating heavily right now. He is sometimes fed two meals in a day and normally eats everything he is given. That shows he is not double dipping as he used to.
  
    I can forget about woodworking next week. I have to go to a wedding next Saturday. I am giving away the bride. The whole day is shot. There won't likely be even yard sailing. With all the activity we won't have time. Since it is my mother who is getting married, I won't go up Sunday.
  
    I will see what happens next weekend.